Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Any Tool Can Be Used As A Hammer…

That’s the basic law of tools. In an emergency, anything can be used to drive a nail

I’d say the same is true of killing a man, wouldn’t you?

Seriously, does the weapon matter? When you commit murder, I mean.

You want a guy dead. Why? Hell, I don’t know, you’re the crazy person out to commit murder, you tell me. Maybe he insulted your mother. Maybe he screwed your sister. Maybe he shot your dog. Maybe he doesn’t believe in Jesus, or hates America, or just doesn’t see things the way you do. Whatever, you hate the bastard and you want him dead.

Does the tool matter?

He doesn’t see it coming, he doesn’t put up a defense, he’s minding his own business and Blam! there you are. Hit him over the head with a crowbar, run him down with your pickup truck, shoot him in the back, slip poison into his tea, vaporize him from orbit with a laser – as long as he ends up dead at your hands, it’s murder.

Does the tool matter?

It’s premeditated. I mean you hate this guy, right? You wanted him dead. You planned his death. You told people you planned his death. There are hundreds of witnesses who watched you plan his death - hell, it’s a conspiracy, you asked them to help you, and a lot of them did. You choose your weapon and you pointed it and you pulled the trigger and he’s dead. That’s murder in the first degree.

Does the tool matter?

You’re guilty as sin. Guilty in the first degree. You admit it, you admit it in public, on the radio and TV. You take responsibility for the death. You crow about it. You rejoice in it. You struck a man down in cold blood, and you’re Goddamned happy the dirty son of a bitch is dead. Even though you feel that you’re justified, you’re still a murderer.

Does the tool matter?

Hell, it worked so well, that you want to do it again. You’re thinking about becoming a serial murderer.

Pastor Wiley Considers himself SAVED. He’s got Jesus as his very own lord and savior and he’s on the fast track to heaven. He’s a self righteous crusader against gays and lesbians, against abortion, against Muslims and Catholics and Jews and Atheists, and most especially against those who advocate the separation of church and state. Pastor Wiley hates those fuckers with the passionate self-righteous fire of man who believes his place in Heaven is assured.

By his own logic, by his own belief, by his own words, Pastor Wiley is a murderer.

Bear with me a minute.

See, Wiley believes in God with every fiber of his being.

There is no doubt in Pastor Wiley Drake’s mind. None at all. God is real, sitting up there in Heaven, wroth in His judgment, Jesus and His fiery sword beside Him. God is angry and He hates the sinners and He answers prayers. Oh yes, even the ones that call upon Him to kill.

See, Pastor Wiley believes in the power of imprecatory prayer. Imprecatory prayer simply put is this: the invocation of evil, i.e. a good old fashioned Old Testament curse. Here’s how it works, under special circumstance, Christians can pray to God and He’ll smite the shit out of some hapless asshole – then that poor bastard gets to go to Hell. Forever.

David did it as described in Psalm 35.

And Pastor Wiley did it.

See, as I mentioned, Wiley hates abortion. He hates it. And he hated abortion provider George Tiller. So Wiley prayed to God to have Doctor Tiller killed. He encouraged his flock to pray for Tiller’s death as well. And according to Pastor Wiley, that’s exactly what what happened, God killed the doctor dead.

Drake, speaking on his Crusade Radio program, from his First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, CA, on June 1st, said:

"I am glad George Tiller is dead. [He was] a brutal, murdering monster and I am grateful to God [that the physician is no longer around]”

"There may be a lot who would say, 'Oh that is mean. You shouldn't be that way,' Well, no, it's an answer to prayer."

Drake said he prayed nearly ten years for the salvation of Tiller, medical director of the Women's Health Care Services clinic and an outspoken advocate for abortion rights. But about a year ago, Drake said, he switched to what he called imprecatory prayer:

"I said to the Lord, 'Lord I pray back to you the Psalms, where it says that they are to become widowers and their children are to become orphans and so forth.' And we began calling for those imprecatory prayers, because he had obviously turned his back on God again and again and again.

Drake called Tiller "a reprobate" and a "brutal, arrogant murderer" who "bragged on his own website how many babies he had killed,” and likened him to Adolf Hitler:

"Would you have rejoiced when Adolf Hitler died during the war? Or would you have said, 'Oh that is terrible for him to be killed'? No, I would have said, 'Amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah, I'm glad he's dead.’ This man, George Tiller, was far greater in his atrocities than Adolf Hitler. So I am happy. I am glad that he is dead. Now I am sad that he went to hell, because he had a choice just like everybody else did. He could have chosen Jesus Christ and when he died went to heaven. But he chose the devil. He chose to neglect, he chose to reject Jesus Christ. And therefore on Sunday morning when he breathed his last breath there in the Lutheran church, he breathed his last breath, and he slipped into the presence of the devil. And I have a strange hunch and a strange feeling that there is a special, superheated, super-hot place in hell for people like George Tiller."

Does the tool matter?

Even if the tool is God Himself?

What matters in a murder trial is intent. There’s a big difference between killing somebody with malice aforethought (First Degree Murder) and killing somebody by accident or negligence (manslaughter). In this case, Wiley believes that God killed Tiller because he, Wiley, asked God to do so through the use of imprecatory prayer. Wiley takes credit for this, publically. He basically brags that he hired a hit man (or hit deity if you prefer), had the doctor killed and delivered to unending torment (i.e. torture). He doesn’t deny it, he’s proud of it.

See, Wiley hates the President of the United States and he’s praying for God to smite Barack Obama down too.

I say we take him up on it.

That’s right.

I say we take Pastor Wiley Drake at his word.

I say we prosecute this man for murder, for conspiracy to murder, for threatening the President, for solicitation to commit murder - and we put him in jail and let him rot there for the rest of his miserable, hateful life.

Wiley and his followers can hardly complain if we take them at their word, now can they?

By their own belief, by their own words, by their own confession, they killed a man in cold blood.

By their own belief, by their own words, they intend to do it again.

And they did it because Wiley told them to. Because Wiley told them God wanted them to do it.

Now, personally, I think the power of imprecatory prayer ranks right up there with gypsy curses and witchcraft. Personally, I think Wiley could fart into the wind and have a better chance of killing somebody than through the so-called power of prayer.

But it doesn’t matter what I think, I’m not trying to kill the President.

Pastor Wiley Drake believes that he has already killed a man, and that he can and will kill the President of the United States through the power of prayer. He believes. He believes. His flock believes. Others believe.

His intent is real.

Does the tool matter?

Yes, I should not be typing. Yes, I made the stitches bleed again. Yes, it’s stupid. But Wiley Drake and his flaming Baptist hypocrisy has done pissed me well and truly off, and I could not not write about it.

I take your point completely, but there's another that I have trouble missing...you, me, most of your readers...we're all going to hell where we'll suffer eternal damnation.

Forever.

Because we haven't accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. In the dear Pastor's mind, there is no difference between me and a mass-murdering, child-buggering cannibal. None at all.

We'll all be punished. Forever. And nothing we do here on Earth makes the slightest difference whatsoever...except for the Deity we choose to worship.

Why? Because some missionary never made it to some village in South America to teach them the truth...they're goin' ta hell. Because there's not enough room in Heaven for everybody on Earth? Damn, that seems like a real lack of Omnipotence to me.

STOP

I just found myself about to go all foamy and decided to interrupt myself. I don't need to expand on the point.

Fine. Back to your point. When even FOX thinks a guy is a nutbar, chances are...

I'll take solace in the fact that one of our friends recently reminded us that there are Christians who live up to the name. They're just quieter in their beliefs. I wish someone would give them a megaphone to overpower the looneys.

Second, shit for brains should not be IN the jail, he should be UNDER IT. Lift jail, insert offender of the week, drop jail. Problem solved. Had a roomie for many years and that was her solution of choice for the really nasty creeps.

Third, throughout the age of man, sacred ground was, well, sacred. It was sactuary. You did not commit crimes on holy ground, regardless of your belief. It was safe, it was shelter. Even authors had their fictional characters respect that (ie: Highlander), and those that broke that unspoken rule were the worst of the worst.

So if you are a leader of a religious group, like Paster Stupido here, and you encourage and pray for someone to commit a crime, and they commit the crime on holy ground. UGH. Does he not realize he has condemned himself to hell as well???

I think we all know just who the gods should be smiting, and I don't think it was the good doctor...who was minding his own business, attending church with his family and friends, enjoying the day, after a week of lawfully providing medical services to his patients. As was his right as a citizen of the US of A.

I also suspect that contrary to Pastor Drake's prayers, he's not where the pastor assumes.

i'll not give my opinion on pro-life pro-choice (for various reasons) but i will say YES it is allowed to preform abortions in this country, and yes it is punishable by law to shoot someone in cold blood, and in many instances in is punishable by law to threaten someones life, wishing (yes i say wishing not praying) is not enough to convict them however prayer can be considered an act of compassion sypathy or desporation so i belive it can then be considered an act of aggression. and he did say he was praying.I say we send him to court and see what the judge says, if god is real then he will influance a pardon for the dear pastor because if god dosn' the only man with enough passion in politics right now to grant him a pardon, he wants dead

this is why i a a pagan a tree whorshipper if my diety wants someone dead they do it themselves, the break and limb and drop it on them. :)

and i'm wishing you a speedy recovery Jim (and no i wasn't wishing you ill for carving our precious trees :(* )

While I don't believe in the power of prayer to kill or cure, Wiley does.

In my mind wishing death on somebody holds no power, but in Wiley's mind he holds the power of life and death, he commands God with the power of imprecatory prayer. He prayed for Tiller to die, and Tiller died QED. Now, empiricist that I am, I suspect that cause and effect here are not what Wiley thinks they are - BUT, all those creationists out there, all those Born Again types, the ones who dismiss science, the ones who proclaim the bible as literal truth - they don't care about empirical truth, they disregard testable theories, they believe in faith. They want a world run on their belief system, on religion, on their version of cause and effect.

Very well, Give it to them.

Prayer can kill. Prayer should therefore be regarded as a deadly weapon, and controlled as such, with the same responsibilities and the same consequences for misuse.

Wiley pointed prayer at a man, that man died. QED. Wiley is a murderer and should be treated as such. It's no different (according to Wiley's belief system) than if he'd jammed a gun against Tiller's temple and pulled the trigger. No different at all.

He's now praying for Obama to die.

Wiley should be treated as any shithead terrorist who threatens the President of the United States, BECAUSE THAT IS EXACTLY THE SYSTEM THESE PEOPLE BELIEVE IN. THIS IS WHAT THEY WANT FOR AMERICA.

Cassie, I guess it's the irony of the situation that appeals to me. No sane person really believes that Wiley and his prayers killed George Tiller. No sane person believes that all the praying in the world is going to smite down the President - but Wiley believes it. Or at least he's using the belief of his flock to fill their heads with this nonsense. Like every single one of these radio preachers, Wiley really wants power. He wants power over people. And not just the power to compel, but the power to make people think the way he does. He hates Obama, and he's just outraged and incensed that everybody else doesn't hate Obama to. Wiley wallows in hypocrisy, just like every single one of these media preacher jackasses. He speaks without regard for the consequences, he demands the world think as he does, he demands that we believe as he does, he demands that we believe in the power of imprecatory prayer and that God can be pointed like a gun - the absolute irony of doing exactly that, of giving Wiley exactly what he demands, appeals to me. If the power of imprecatory prayer is indeed real, if God can be pointed like a weapon, then Wiley is guilty of murder - or he's full of shit like every other scumbag tent preacher.

I say let's put him on the stand and see how much he really believes, i.e. go to the electric chair for murder, for terrorism, for threatening the president - or admit that it's nothing more than a scam. That he made it up.

See, the term and concept of imprecatory prayer is never actually mentioned in the bible anywhere. Wiley read Psalm 35 and made the rest of it up. And he's been condemned by the Southern Baptist Convention for his nonsense. But still he persists - and he persists because he doesn't actually believe, he just wants power. He's nothing but a fucking hypocrite and a scam artist and a tent preacher with his hand out and the irony of drowning him in his own bullshit appeals to me. And if he's made a martyr, in the Muslim style, well, I'll laugh even more, because that would a poetic irony almost epic in scope.

Yeah, it's ten years later and you're a busy man, but what the heck, I'm reading your archives and thought this might amuse you:

30 years ago, give or take, Hill Street Blues had a story arc where a Pro-Lifer assaulted a woman outside an abortion clinic and she miscarried as a result. He was indicted for manslaughter for killing the fetus.His PD (not the Joyce Davenport character, but one of her coked-up, crazy friends) decided to base her defense on the argument that the fetus was not a human being, hence no manslaughter. Thus the irony (or hypocrisy) of someone being defended in law by exactly what he believes to be untrue.

I love the way people can simply ignore anything they want when it comes to religious beliefs. He prayed for 10 years - nothing came of it.. but there was no questioning that prayer is effective at all. Then he switched to hate-prayer and prayed for 364 days with nothing happening. But on the 365th, when something did happen, he believes prayer is the reason.

Yeah, I think threatening the life of the President is one of those "Go to Jail, do not pass Go" cards in the Secret Service watch file listing.

And for that matter, then Pat Robertson is guilty of killing Judge Rehnquist, after all he was using imprecatory prayer to open up spaces on the Supreme Court. Although I guess that might only be manslaughter since he didn't specifically target Rehnquist.

I want to see these hypocritical assholes skewered on the points of their own swords in public - if what they say is true, they are guilty of murder, or gross negligence at minimum, based on their own belief system and they must suffer the consequences - OR - they have to admit that they really don't believe their own bullshit either, i.e they have to admit their fraud.

Which is it, Pastor?

Go to prison for murder or admit that you're just talking out your ass, either way I'm good.

Powerful commmentary. The type of people who advocate violence and then hide behind their religion are despicable.

What I want to know is now, with the murder of George Tiller by an avowed anti-abortionist with ties to organized anti-abortionist groups and the attack by the white supremacist on the Holocaust Museum, how come these two groups are not labeled as domestic terrorists and investigated as such by the FBI and National Security?

James W von Brunn had known associations with other white surpremacists and anti-American organizations that advocatd violence. How come these associates are not renditioned to a maximum security prison and waterboarded to give up their plans and identities of other members?? They blatantly have publicized violence for minority groups and organizations yet no actions have been taken. If people advocate waterboarding as a technique to preserve national security it should be applied equally to all members who threaten violence to insitutions in the United States.

I understand what you're saying, Janiece and John, but if Drake was prosecuted for conspiracy - then, as Cassie mentioned, he becomes a martyr, just another Christen hounded by the ungodly, exactly as he preaches and exactly as he wants. And I think you'd have a hard time convicting him, because I seriously doubt that a) the Christian majority would stand for it, and b) nobody who was prosecuting him would believe that his prayer bullshit is an actual threat.

Not that you couldn't make a case that his hate speech was encouraging nuts to commit assassination or murder - but I think you'd run afoul of the 1st amendment in court, and certainly on appeal should you win a conviction.

However, using his own ideology against not only has a certain amount of poetry to it, but he has no one to blame but himself, he said he could talk to God, and that God kills people because people ask him to - that's solicitation to murder, right there. Try Wiley for that (based on Wiley's own words, do not dispute him at all, accept Wiley's statement at face value, the court doesn't have to prove God does or does not exist or if prayer works). Wiley already claimed credit for the act. He asked God to kill Tiller, Tiller's dead. QED. Now Wiley's asking God to kill the President. So, Wiley goes to prison for murder and for conspiracy to encourage God to kill the President, or Wiley has to admit himself that he's full of shit and God really didn't answer his prayers and he is really a sad little fraud.

He only gets two choices, accept the consequences of his actions, or publicly admit that he's a fraud.

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Jim Wright is a retired US Navy Chief Warrant Officer and freelance writer. He lived longer in Alaska than anywhere else and misses it terribly. He recently moved to the fetid Panhandle of Florida and lives now in an ancient Cold War bunker of a house surrounded by alligators and rednecks. He's been called the Tool of Satan, but he prefers to think of himself as the Devil's Designated Driver. He is the mind behind Stonekettle Station. You can email him at jim@stonekettle.com. You can follow him on Twitter @stonekettle, or you can join the boisterous bunch he hosts on Facebook at Facebook/Stonekettle. Remember to bring brownies and mind the white cat, he bites. Hard.

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